US House bill demanding China to release detained Canadians ‘overreaching’: analysts

By Wang Qi Source:Global Times Published: 2019/10/16 23:33:40

Anti-China hawks voice election strategy: analysts


File Photo: U.S. Secretary of State Mike Pompeo speaks during a press briefing in Washington D.C., the United States, Feb. 1, 2019. Photo: Xinhua



The passage of anti-China bills by the US House of Representatives, including a motion demanding China to release two Canadian suspects, shows some politicians are using alleged human rights to interfere in China's domestic affairs and play the anti-China card as the 2020 US election approaches, analysts said.  

The Democrat-controlled lower chamber of the US Congress on Tuesday passed a bill supporting Canada's detention of Meng Wanzhou, chief financial officer of Chinese tech giant Huawei and also urging China to release two Canadians detained in 2018. 

Three other bills about Hong Kong Special Administrative Region were also passed. 

The analysts all noted the bills were "absurd" and clearly showed how the US acting as world police and using domestic bills to interfere in other countries' internal affairs. 

According to reports, US Secretary of State Mike Pompeo, known for his hawkish stance toward China, assured Canadian Prime minister Justin Trudeau in August that the US was working to get the Canadians released. 

The two detained are former Canadian diplomat John Kovrig and Spavor Michael Peter Todd. Detention of the two was confirmed by Chinese Foreign Ministry in December 2018, saying they were under investigation on suspicion of jeopardizing China's national security. 

Chinese authorities in March updated that Michael Kovrig had stolen sensitive intelligence from China, and Spavor was Kovrig's intelligence contact.

"It is no surprise that the US shows support for its watchdog, but detention of the Canadians is in line with China's laws and regulations, which has nothing to do with Meng's case," Sun Chenghao, a research fellow at the institute of American studies at the China Institutes of Contemporary International Relations in Beijing, told the Global Times on Wednesday. 

Liu Weidong, a researcher at the institute of American studies at the Chinese Academy of Social Sciences in Beijing, said that the aggressive stance toward China was "a kind of political correctness in the US," and the Democrats were seeking support in the 2020 election through passing a range of anti-China motions. 

"US politicians frequently play the cards of human rights to meddle in China's internal affairs when an election approaches," Liu said, noting the motion against China was groundless but of a utilitarian purpose. "It shows the chaos of the US politics," Liu told the Global Times. 

Some politicians were pressing their president to hold a tougher policy toward China, as some hawkish people believe the recent US-China trade agreement is a kind of compromise, Liu noted.
Newspaper headline: US House bills ‘overreaching’


Posted in: DIPLOMACY

blog comments powered by Disqus